1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a vehicle barrier, and in particular, a vehicle barrier capable of absorbing energy of an impacting vehicle in a non-lethal manner.
2. Technical Background
Maintaining the security of sensitive government facilities and the like from terrorist attack or unauthorized entry is of great concern. In particular, concern over motor vehicle based terrorist attacks and the like have led to a “security first” mentality in the development and production of security gates and barriers. The primary goal of such “security first” gates and barriers is to prevent an unauthorized vehicle or vehicles from penetrating the secured area, and to maximize the distance between a potentially explosive laden vehicle and the facility. As such, most such security devices are typically designed without regard to the safety of the occupants of an impacting vehicle, and are generally considered to be lethal. In fact, the lethality of such devices to the driver of the impacting vehicle may be considered to be a secondary benefit in some circumstances.
However, conventional security gates and barriers fail to consider the errant driver that mistakenly collides with the device. Unfortunately, collisions between errant drivers and security gates and barriers are not rare events. Errant drivers may impact security gates and barriers for a variety of reasons, such as being lost, being distracted by mobile phones or the like, or being impaired by drugs or alcohol.
Thus, a need presently exists for an improved security gate that is capable of effectively preventing unauthorized or unwanted vehicles from penetrating a secure area in a non-lethal manner.